1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of processing packets, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method of processing packets by the application of a packet processing rule.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the rapid development of wired and wireless communication technologies, the number of subscribers signing up a single network has also increased. Since a large number of subscribers exist on the network, permission of access to the network, guarantee of packet processing rate and charge of expense need to be performed according to respective subscribers in difference.
Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) provides differentiated policies to IP-Edge equipment of an access network and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) equipment providing Traffic Detection Function (TDF), according to the respective subscribers. Examples of the IP-Edge equipment of an access network or examples of gateway equipment are: Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN-GW) of Long Term Evolution (LTE) network; Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network; Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network; Access Service Network Gateway (ASN-GW) of mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wi-MAX) network; Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG) of Interworking Wireless Local Area Network (I-WLAN); etc.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) PCC (Policy and Charging Control) network.
Referring to FIG. 1, PCRF 110 determines a policy for a subscriber session and transmits the policy to one or more of the following: Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) 145, Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function (BBERF) 120 and TDF 130.
The PCEF 145 is included in a gateway 140. The PCEF 145 is a configuration provided by IP-Edge. The PCEF 145 performs a Quality of Service (QoS) function, a gating function, and a charging function according to a PCC rule received from the PCRF 110. When the PCEF 145 includes a function of the TDF 130, the PCEF 145 performs the QoS/gating function based on the Application Detection and Control (ADC) rule received from the PCRF 110.
The BBERF 120 exists when a Bearer Binding function is separated from the IP-Edge. The BBERF 120 performs a gating function and a QoS function according to a QoS rule received from the PCRF 110.
The TDF 130 detects a particular application and/or a protocol at the application level and performs a gating function and a QoS function according to an ADC rule received from the PCRF 110.
The Subscription Profile Repository (SPR) 150 manages the subscription profiles of respective subscribers. When User Data Convergence (UDC) structure is applied, the SPR 150 may be replaced by a User Data Repository (UDR). When UDR is used, the UDR cooperates with PCRF 120 through a Ud interface.
An Application Function (AF) 160 provides information about services used by the subscriber to the PCRF 110.
An Online Charging System (OCS) 170 performs a real time charging function. The OCS 170 cooperates with the PCRF 110 through an Sy interface to perform a QoS function, a gating function and a charging function, differently, depending on information about the balance of prepaid subscribers.
An Offline Charging System (OFCS) 180 performs a non-real time charging function.
The PCRF 110 provides a policy applied to the subscriber session in the form of a PCC/QoS/ADC rule to the PCEF 145, BBERF 120 and TDF 130. In the description, a PCC rule, QoA rule and ADC rule are commonly called the PCC/QoS/ADC rule. Rules to be used for the process of packets, such as PCC/QoS/ADC rule, can be commonly called packet processing rules. The PCC/QoS/AIDC rules are provided through a Gx/Gxx/Sd interface. The Gx/Gxx/Sd interface uses Attribute-Value Pairs (AVP) based on a Diameter protocol.
The transmission of the PCC/QoS/ADC rule is classified in two ways. A first method is an approach of a predefined rule where PCRF 110 provides a rule name of a pre-defined policy to the PCEF 145, BBERF 120 or TDF 130. A second method is an approach of a dynamic rule where PCRF 110 defines the entire rule and transfers all the configurations of the rule to the PCEF 145, BBERF 120 or TDF 130. Since the PCEF 145, BBERF 120 and TDF 130 process packets based on the rules transmitted from the PCRF 110, the PCEF 145, BBERF 120 and TDF 130 are commonly called a packet process apparatus.
PCC/QoS/ADC rules include the following two components.
1. Filter Information
2. QoS policy/gating policy/charging policy (however, QoS rule and ADC rule do not include a charging policy)
The filter information is referred to as information for the extraction of a packet to which a corresponding policy is applied. The filter information may include information about precedence for prioritizing among filters. The PCC rule and QoS rule are each comprised of five tuple information items. The ADC rule includes information about applications. In the following description, the QoS policy, the gating policy, and the charging policy are commonly called policy information. That is, the policy information is related to information about a method of processing packets, and may include one or more of the following: a QoS policy, gating policy and charging policy.
When packet processing rules are transmitted through the method of a predefined rule described above, PCRF 110 provides the names of predefined rules for all the packet processing rules to the PCEF 145, BBERF 120 or TDF 130. A rule corresponding to the rule name includes filter information and the corresponding policy information. According to a method of a predefined rule, for the same filter information, in order to apply two or more of the following: Qos policy, gating policy and charging policy which differ from each other, preset rules for respective polices need to have been previously defined. For example, PCRF 110 needs to define a first rule (including first filter information and first policy information) and a second rule (including first filter information and second policy information). Therefore, in order to provide a variety of differentiated policies, PCRF 110 need to define preset rules to which a plurality of packet processing polices for the same filter information (first filter information) are applied respectively. Similarly, in order to apply the same policy information to filter information items that differ from each other, PCRF 110 need to define preset rules corresponding to the filter information items. In general, the number of rules that can be defined in PCEF 145, BBERF 120 or the TDF 130 is restricted due to the limitation of the memory capacity, and may include an error while the operator directly sets up a plurality of predefined rules.
For example, if there are M policies for N filters (M and N are positive integers), the number of rules to be predefined is N×M, thereby covering the entire combination of the filters and the policies.
Filter Information                Filter 1: HTTP traffic        Filter 2: FTP traffic        Filter 3: Skype traffic        . . .        Filter N: YouTube traffic        
Policy Information                Policy 1: QoS limitation, and volume-based offline charging        Policy 2: Traffic blocking        Policy 3: Traffic Redirect to the service provider's portal        . . .        Policy M: Not charging        